How do I write with a rhythm/cadence without losing command of the English language?

Question

I'm sorry. I know I've been posting a lot of questions lately.

Many times in the past, when I tried to write words with cadence and showed them to people, they said that I had poor command of the English language. They said my sentences were unidiomatic, improper in word order, and verbose. They also said that I was using words that didn't mean what I wanted them to mean, and that I was combining words in ways that didn't make sense. So they told me to practice writing clearly and without aiming for cadence.

Well, I already know I can write clearly and without aiming for cadence. But now I want to achieve cadence in much of my writing. My only problem is this issue I had in the past with butchering the English language every time I attempted cadence.

Is there any advice you can give me on maintaining clarity and good command of English while also matching my words to the cadence I wish?

I appreciate your answers. Thank you.

Answer 1

From my own personal experiences, I manage to make a rhythmic style of writing by making my sentence lengths dynamic, from long to short to long again, or some medium in-between. This creates a smooth flow, and still follows the basic rules of English — excluding run-on sentences. They should be generally avoided, but I've seen even that as a style before. Dynamic sentence lengths create a flowing rhythm, and could be tweaked to even create different moods, like growing anxiety with a long and heavy sentence, and a sudden surprise with one little clip. As it says on this site:

Long sentences: Slow, descriptive or explanatory. Can create a sense of relaxation, flow, or time dragging. Using long sentences can create a fluent style and rhythm.

Short sentences: Good for action, and dramatic lines. For example, 'a shot rang out.' Short sentences can create a punchy choppy rhythm.

An even more perfect example is stated by Gary Provost:

This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.

Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals—sounds that say listen to this, it is important.

So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music.

As Provost says, you can create music with how you give out the sentence lengths. Dynamic! It has rhythm, cadence, and still follows the rules of the English language!

Hope that was helpful.

Some links: https://www.s-cool.co.uk/gcse/english/writing-to-describe/revise-it/varying-sentences https://mannerofspeaking.org/2016/05/26/powerful-sentence-structure-for-your-speech/

Answer 2

Gibberish is an achievment. Don't be ashamed of your lack of English use. Clarifying is easy if you try to find another synonym for the words that you are trying to use.

A cadence is a form of poetry that is a type of rap or lullaby. Your best chance is to write a normal poem, then add your beat to it. Hear some more examples and rhyme some words could do more than just nonsense.

Hope this helps.